Senate President Lawan Has Told Buhari To Wake Up To COVID-19

To be frank, I am not sure the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan ever thought he would find himself antagonizing President Muhammadu Buhari and members of his cabinet, considering that the presidency played central role in his emergence as senate president. But he found himself a few days ago doing just that. And no one could blame him because he was on point.

There’s not just one thing wrong with the Buhari administration; there are many! And it is frightening how a government could carry on in such confused, unorganized manner that could crash even a town union association, not to talk of a country like Nigeria.

At a time nations around the world are taking pre-emptive measures to curb spread of the deadly China virus, Nigeria is acting as if it had immunity against the virus. The Buhari administration has been sleeping since the first case of the virus was reported in Lagos. The government is not doing anything else beyond asking the minister of health to talk to journalists on the condition of the Italian who imported the virus into the country.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, exposed the lackadaisical attitude of this government to the medical emergency on Wednesday last week when the leadership of the Senate toured the Coronavirus isolation centres located at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada.

Television footages of the visit showed Lawan visibly angry at the state he met the facilities. He had reportedly said: “I am sad, we are indeed actually sad, that of the N620 million that was supposed to be released to this place for fixing of everything here to NCDC, not a kobo has been released.

 “There’s no way that Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, with a population of 200 million, and yet the Federal Capital and six surrounding states of the North Central; you don’t have one room that you can call an isolation centre, where anyone who unfortunately falls into this crisis will be taken to. This is not acceptable.

“So, we are going to ensure that the money is released, we are going to put pressure. This is what they are supposed to do, and they must do it.”

The senate president went on to admonish those in government that this was not a time to show laxity and everyone needed to be up to their game.

But his revelation was in stark contrast to what the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, had said earlier. The minister, at a press briefing in Abuja last week, said the Federal Government had released every fund needed by the Port Health Services and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) which he described as the nation’s first and second lines of defence for coronavirus.

But Lawan emphatically contradicted that announcement few days later when he went on inspection, saying no kobo had been released. He promised to take the matter the matter up with the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and others that may not be doing their jobs as expected.

Two days after Lawan spoke, Ehanire tried to safe face and underplayed the lack of synergy in the government. At a press briefing on Friday 6 January, he said Lawan had visited Gwagwalada at a time they were yet to put finishing torches to the facility. He said the isolation facility had now been completed.

Not long after Ehanire’s press conference last Friday, the minister of finance issued a statement saying she had just released the N620 million meant for the NCDC, the fund Lawan had complained about. It was the fund supposed to have been released nearly one month ago to help emergency preparations.

The statement by the minister of finance effectively contradicts Ehanire’s earlier comments, further showing the disconnect within the government. But more than that, it highlights a major flaw in the character of the Buhari administration, and showed just how unresponsive the administration has become. It always needed to be awoken and stampeded into action, and sometimes, it’s just totally unresponsive.

The handling of the coronavirus responsiveness demonstrates a certain lethargy and inertial which critics of the administration had used to explain why the country had been under the evil grip of insecurity. It would appear as if the presidency itself in the throes of an infectious disease which may have become an epidemic in the government! The presidency has become a burden on governance, smoldering creativity, initiative and drive within the cabinet.  

The character of this administration is so well known to Nigerians that any member of the cabinet, like Ehanire, Lai Muhammed, Femi Adesina, and Garba Shehu who tries to defend the actions or inactions of the government easily becomes a target of public scorn and rage. You only need to go to the social media to experience what it means to work in government at this moment.

There are many Nigerians and groups who’re not impressed by how the government has handled responses to the coronavirus outbreak. And one of them is the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA). Its president, Francis Faduyile, told THE WHISTLER that the association was “appalled” at the way the government was handling emergency preparedness.

“Lagos state has functional isolation centres but Abuja is the nation’s capital and we don’t have any functional facility yet,” he told the online paper.  

He also condemned a situation where the ministry of agriculture would be the procurement agency for the ministry of health, and said such an arrangement was not suitable for emergency responses.

While I have no doubt that this administration has good intentions and policies, the lack of cohesion within the cabinet, especially the presidency, is affecting governance and it is time to wake the presidency up again.

Covid-19 is fast spreading and has been described as a global pandemic. Nigeria must not be caught napping in view of its unimaginable consequences. The presidency must fight its own infection first, to save the government, and Nigeria from going down. There are unnerving signs that all is not well with our country.  Nigeria is already facing too many problems and it cannot afford a government that waits for things to get worse before looking for solutions.

This is the time to become proactive. As the senate president advised when he saw the facility in Gwagwalada, those saddled with leadership responsibilities in the country must live up to expectations through the timely discharge of their mandates and duties.